NANC Interoperable Video Calling Working Group Ponders 2 Approaches in Report
An interoperable video calling (IVC) advisory committee to the North American Numbering Council couldn't reach consensus between a plan to implement a telephone number database or to use a technology platform-based approach, said working group co-chair Matthew Gerst, vice president-regulatory affairs at CTIA. "We're asking for an extension of our charter." The group issued preliminary recommendations to the FCC in a report and a roundtable discussion at the agency's headquarters Thursday. The group was tasked with determining how to best facilitate point-to-point video calls using 10-digit phone numbers across video service boundaries.
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Today's video calling services use IP-based technology on computers or apps on mobile phones, but most aren't interoperable across competing platforms. Some services use phone numbers to address, identify and authenticate video calls, but others use other routing identifiers. The group grappled with whether all video calling services should use phone numbers, said IVC working group co-chair David Bahar, Communication Service for the Deaf director-public policy and government affairs. Consumers within the deaf and hard of hearing communities seek interoperability for social and safety reasons, to make it easier to reach friends and families using various mobile plans, for example, without needing to keep track of multiple devices themselves. Bahar said the ability to use a single phone number across multiple devices would be "a big deal for our community."
An ability to invoke video relay service assistance in mid-call during a video session could provide a safety backup for the deaf or hard of hearing, said Bahar. The report recommends studying in more detail the technical specifics of interoperability between VRS agents and 911 operators. The report opposed limiting the user registration of phone numbers within a number database to VRS users because it would render the video calling services no longer fully interoperable.
The database approach would use existing and new phone numbers within a database and translate them to URIs to connect a video call. The platform approach would rely on existing network capabilities of IMS networks to signal video calls. The group couldn't agree because each approach had benefits and drawbacks, it said.
In its preliminary report, the group asked for help finding subject matter experts in numbering and in the two primary authentication approaches that address and facilitate video calling. The IVC working group didn't want to recommend changes to numbering or numbering administration, including the iTRS numbering directory, before hearing from those experts. The working group also wants expert recommendations on the technical and operational feasibility of using existing databases to support a telephone number-based approach to interoperable video calling. For technical recommendations, the group asked NANC to request help from ATIS' IP Network-to-Network Interface Task Force and Emergency Services Interconnection Forum and from the Internet Engineering Task Force.
The FCC could also offer grants for engineering test beds on interoperable video calling to decide which technical challenges may be easier to fix in a lab than they appear on paper, said Henning Schulzrinne, a working group member and Columbia University professor. Plenty of business and operational issues for the move to interoperable video calling, including cost and privacy issues, fall outside the "very narrow" scope of the IVC working group, co-chair Gerst acknowledged at the meeting.
Membership for the IVC working group was announced last fall, but its early work was stymied by the government shutdown this year and topic complexity. The group expects to issue another report later this summer, Gerst said, highlighting issues the next working group would be expected to follow. The FCC plans to recharter NANC and is seeking new members until July 8 (see 1906070018).